Public’s expectations of NHS too high, say doctors
pharmafile | November 15, 2005 | News story | |Â Â Â
Most young doctors believe the public's expectations of the NHS are too high, according to a new survey.
The BMA surveyed a group of doctors who began their careers in 1995 and found 80% believed the general public's expectation about what the NHS could deliver is too high.
The proportion expressing this view has increased from 58% in 1995, while an even greater number (75%) said expectations about doctors and medicine were also too high, also up from ten years ago.
Survey respondents were also asked to identify one core value that defines doctors as professionals. Over half (51%) said that competence to practise was the most important value, followed by integrity (15%), caring (12%) and compassion (10%).
Meanwhile, more than half (54%) saw medicine as a major commitment, but said doctors deserve a family life and leisure time. Over 25% said medicine should be organised in a way that allows doctors a good work-life balance; 10% regarded medicine as a total commitment.
Opinions about the level of commitment needed to be a doctor have not changed significantly over the last ten years – but the survey showed more believed that medicine has become like any other job and doctors have the right to work normal hours and forget about work when they get home.
The report also found more than half the doctors surveyed said there may be circumstances when it is in the best interest of the patient for the doctor to withhold information. The survey also found:
- 20% believed that patients are consumers, and that doctors should respond to their demands.
- Most said that leadership of healthcare teams made up of doctors and other staff should fall to the most appropriate professional, but only 42% said that doctors were the natural leaders of such teams.
The BMA sent questionnaires to the 543 doctors remaining in the cohort which began their careers in 1995, with 486 responses received between August 2004 and February 2005.
External links:
The full report is available on the BMA website at: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/profval
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